Lakeside Lodge in Pidley moves ahead with padel court plan
Lakeside Lodge Golf Centre in Pidley has put forward a padel court plan at Fen Road, Huntingdon, PE28 3DF, under planning reference 26/01142/FUL. The application is listed as received, so the project is in the submitted stage and has not yet been decided.
That matters because Pidley is not the obvious place most people would expect to see padel’s next push, yet that is exactly how the sport is expanding across the UK. The growth story is no longer confined to big-city leisure complexes. In Cambridgeshire, plans have also been drawn up in Peterborough for courts at one of the country’s oldest golf courses, while separate proposals there would turn an empty warehouse into four padel courts. The pattern is the same: clubs and non-club sites are both trying to catch a sport that is still drawing fresh demand.
For a venue like Lakeside Lodge, the numbers will hinge on more than laying down a court and waiting for bookings. Rural and village settings usually need a different model from urban clubs, because traffic is lighter and the customer base is narrower. The upside is that a club environment can turn casual interest into repeat play through memberships, lessons and informal competition, especially when guests and local users can be folded into the same offer.
The obstacles are familiar, and they are practical before they are anything else. UK planning guidance generally means padel court development needs permission, particularly for outdoor courts, floodlighting, canopies or broader leisure fit-outs. Noise and light pollution are also common flashpoints, and they have already helped stall or complicate other padel projects in the UK. That is why even a single-court proposal in a place like Pidley can quickly move from a simple sports upgrade to a planning test.
The wider market is still moving fast. Industry commentary published in January 2025 said padel planning applications rose 113% in 2024, and that nearly 17,000 development-ready sites had been identified for investment. Those figures explain why local proposals now draw attention well beyond their immediate patch. Each one is part of the same calculation: whether padel can keep converting curiosity into regular play once it leaves the big urban centres.